WebHostingPad Hosting Review 2017

In this hosting review, we’ll take a look at budget hosting provider, WebHostingPad. Though they also offer VPS plans, we will be primarily looking at WebHostingPad’s shared hosting plans.

Launched back in 2005, WebHostingPad offers affordable prices and claimed “unlimited” hosting. WebHostingPad is a division of Omnis Networks, who has been around the hosting space for even longer (since 1999).

While WebHostingPad claims impressive features, they were the worst-performing host in most of our real-world tests. So, buyer definitely beware! Keep reading to learn more about WebHostingPad’s features and real-world performance.

Overview of WebHostingPad Features

Here’s what you can expect with WebHostingPad, even on their cheapest plan:

Unlimited storage and bandwidth

Unlimited websites

Claimed 99% uptime (not reflected in our test)

Free domain or site migration

Free backups

cPanel dashboard

One-click software installs

24/7 US-based support

Now, let’s take a look at how those claims match up with our real-world data…

WebHostingPad Performance – Real Testing Data

Unfortunately, WebHostingPad’s performance in our tests was very disappointing.

With regards to uptime, our test site was only available 97.74% of the time. This is both the worst uptime of any host we tested as well as significantly below their claimed 99.9% uptime.

The average load time of our Chicago-based test site was a sloth-like 4.78 seconds, which again ranked dead last for all of the hosts we tested. And their “Time to First Byte”, a basic measure of server responsiveness, was .93 seconds. While not dead last, this was also one of the lowest we tested.

Essentially, WebHostingPad performed very poorly in our tests.

WebHostingPad Data Centers

Data centers are the actual physical location where your site is hosted. Many hosts offer multiple data centers spread over different geographic areas. Unfortunately, WebHostingPad currently only has one data center, located in Chicago, IL.

While this centralized location is perfectly fine for North American websites, internationally targeted websites might want to look for a host which offers international data centers.

WebHostingPad Unlimited Storage, Bandwidth, and Websites

WebHostingPad offers both unlimited storage and bandwidth, which has become a common claim in the hosting industry. The addition of unlimited websites, even on their cheapest plan, offers some redemption for those looking to host a huge number of websites at an affordable price.

Just remember that you may be sacrificing reliability and speed to take advantage of these unlimited offerings.

WebHostingPad Support and Knowledge Base

WebHostingPad offers support via phone, live chat, and tickets. Support is available in some form 24/7. Having multiple support options is a nice touch, but not enough to 100% redeem their real-world performance.

They also have a knowledge base with around 200 self-help articles for common issues you might encounter.

WebHostingPad Technologies Offered

WebHostingPad offers the latest technologies in PHP 7 and HTTP/2. These technologies offer significant performance improvements over PHP 5.6 and HTTP, respectively. All plans also come with SSH.

On their slightly more expensive shared plan, WebHostingPad also has SSD database storage, which offers performance improvements over standard physical drives.

WebHostingPad Shared Plans and Pricing

While WebHostingPad may have faltered in our real-world tests, they don’t falter when it comes to pricing. WebHostingPad offers absolute rock-bottom prices.

Their cheapest Power Plan costs just $3.99 per month with monthly billing. Few shared hosts can compete with that monthly price. If you’re willing to pay in increments of years, you can even get the price down to a minuscule $1.99 per month.

Their more expensive shared plan, Power Plan Plus, offers more powerful servers and better features starting at $7.99 per month with monthly billing. It’s possible to get the price down to $4.99 per month if buying years in advance.

You’ll be hard-pressed to find other hosting providers who offer unlimited websites at WebHostingPad’s prices.

WebHostingPad VPS and Managed Hosting Plans

In addition to their shared plans, WebHostingPad also offers VPS hosting plans starting at $39.95 per month for 20GB storage, 100GB bandwidth, and 1GB RAM.

They also offer a managed plan for $119.95 per month for 300GB storage, 3TB bandwidth, and 8GB RAM.

Should You Choose WebHostingPad?

WebHostingPad’s prices are incredible. But, their real-world performance in our tests was very poor. For that reason, we recommend that most people choose a more reliable, though likely slightly more expensive, shared host. It’s not worth saving a few dollars at the expense of uptime and performance.

There is one situation where we can see WebHostingPad being a viable option. If you’re just looking to host a huge number of websites and don’t care very much about speed and uptime, you probably won’t find a cheaper option than WebHostingPad.

WebHostingPad offers a 30-day money back guarantee, so you can always try them before fully committing.

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